The world ofOne Pieceis full of powerful pirates, from the opportunistic Blackbeard to the man shrouded in mystery, Shanks.While the seas reward strength, no character is strong enough to conquer it alone, leading to the creation of pirate crews. With a mixed bag of goals, a crew becomes a family, even those with unsightly dreams. No matter how they form, the best of the best always contain powerful pirates.
For crews to be on this list, they must explicitly be pirates, so no Revolutionary Army or other groups. Strength is a loose term, but generally, the crews must bemade of strong and/or many individuals. However, some crews also form a fleet with many members spread around the world. This will also be considered for this list, along withformer crews that are now disbanded. These ten pirate groups prove to have the world within their grasp, showing immense power through their strength and numbers.
10Donquixote Family
Key Members: Donquixote Doflamingo, Vergo, Trebol
While the Donquixote might be more of a crime family, that usually goes hand in hand with being a pirate in the world ofOne Piece. After being born as a Celestial Dragon, Doflamingo’s father left to live an honest life. Unfortunately, that only leads to pain and suffering, with Doflamingo and his brother, Corazon, slowly building a crime empire through the help of Trebol, eventually creating a pirate family where they would rule over Dressrosa.
With some hired help, Doflamingo has many fodder grunts helping him, boosting their strength. However, they find their way on this list because the family is quite extensive, with each member being reasonably strong. Outside of Doflamingo, which fans know is strong, they have members like Vergo, one of thestrongest vice-admirals inOne Piece, the imposing Pica, Diamante, and Trebol. Each member holds their weight, butDoflamingo is the only heavy hitter, so the Donquixote family is at the bottom of this list.
9Cross Guild
Key Members: Buggy, Dracule Mihawk, Crocodile
Cross Guild is the most recent pirate crew to form inOne Piece, with the reveal happening near the end of Wano. While some fans may argue it isn’t a pirate crew, withBuggy’s declaration to become Pirate King, they more than fit that category. After Buggy owed Crocodile some money, he helped finance their operation of Cross Guild, an organization that would put bounties on Marines. They have since become a real threat, with massive reach and influence.
Since Cross Guild is new, fans don’t know the full scale of their strength, with the only notable members being Buggy and his old crew, as well as some former Baroque Works members. However,Mihawk and Crocodile are enough to bolster Cross Guild, with those two being some of the strongest characters inOne Piece. If that isn’t sufficient, thenthe organization’s reach is sure to garner thousands of pirates, especially with Buggy, who most pirates seem to worship.
8Straw Hat Grand Fleet
Key Members: Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Vinsmoke Sanji
As the main cast, fans have seen the Straw Hat Pirates grow from Luffy in a barrel to ten strong members defeating an emperor of the sea. Luffy slowly built his crew arc by arc, inviting rejects and monsters to go on the adventure of a lifetime. This has created an inseparable bond, with many more joining in Dressrosa,one of their bestOne Piecearcs, where the Grand Straw Hat fleet was developed with members of the Giant Pirates, Bartolomeo, Cavendish, and more.
Luffy has made it clear that he would not be where he is without his friends, a testament to their strength and his trust in them. That is one of the strongest things a crew can have, but it also helps when each member is powerful and is only getting stronger. Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Jinbei are the strongest, but the rest are no slouches either, as theycontinuously defeat opponents stronger than them. As an emperor, the Straw Hats have to be strong, with their Grand Fleet adding many more powerful members,but theStraw Hats still have a bit to gobefore they can claim to be the strongest.
7The Red Hair Pirates
Key Members: Shanks, Benn Beckman, Lucky Roux
Fans know the Red Hair Pirates have been around for a while, with them being active when Luffy was a child, ultimately inspiring him to become a pirate. Shanks, their captain, was a former member of the Roger Pirates, who left after the captain fell sick and sometime after, started building his crew. Fans don’t know much about them, but they saw their first glimpse during Egghead, with more soon to follow.
Gaging the strength of the Red Hair Pirates is tricky because fans haven’t seen much of them or how many there are. They now know the crew has some sort of fleet; however, Shanks joked about them being weak. Either way, all fans need to know is that Shanks' main crew is enough to land him a decent spot on this list. After crashingthe most epic battle in anime, fans were privy to their strength and influence asthey struck fear into some of the strongest characters inOne Piece.
6The Charlotte Family
Key Members: Charlotte Linlin, Charlotte Katakuri, Charlotte Smoothie
After her parents abandoned her, Charlotte Linlin lived in Elbaf with the giants until her dark desires overcame her. However, after Streusen rescued her, she became a member of a particular pirate crew that will be on this list later. Sometime later, she would form the Big Mom Pirates, which is essentially her family. She would marry and have kids with multiple fathers, resulting in an astounding blood-related army with ultimate loyalty.
As an emperor of the sea, Big Mom’s crew has to be powerful, but fans witnessed how vast it was in Whole Cake Island, one of thebest arcs inOne Piece. While the scrappy Straw Hats managed to escape, they wereutterly overwhelmed by their extensive forces. Many of her children are strong, particularly Katakuri, Smoothie, Cracker, Oven, and Daifuku, who have the same strength as many of the 12 supernovas.
5The Beast Pirates
Key Members: Kaido, King, Queen
Like Big Mom, Kaido was also a member of the same certain pirate crew. Showing parallels between Luffy and the Straw Hats, Kaido started his crew with his right-hand man, King. Since then, he built up an impressive roster of fighters, experiments, and grunts, most with zoan devil fruits. With their strength, The Beast Pirates helped take over Wano, where they would reside and make their base of operations.
Fans got a first-hand view of how mighty the Beast Pirates were in Wano as they delivered some of thebest fights inOne Piece. Fans considered Kaido the strongest character inOne Piece, with his crew having so many levels proving their strength. There were the Calamaties ofKing, Queen, and Jack, the Tobi Roppo, Numbers, Gifters, and Headliners, and multiple sub-divisions that covered every level of strength from admiral level to Straw Hat level to fodders,proving their massive scale and potency of strength.
4The Blackbeard Pirates
Key Members: Marshal D. Teach, Kuzan, Shiryu
Making his introduction in a pissing contest with Luffy in Jaya, fans were excited to see what Blackbeard had in store. Little did they know he would become the biggest threat in all the seas. With a meticulous plan, Blackbeard gathered members, became a Warlord to gain access to Impel Down, freed many strong prisoners for his crew, became an emperor, and has since extended his crew with countless strong pirates.
While fans know Blackbeard has a strong crew, he makes it so far up the list because of the assumption he has a larger fleet at his disposal. Regardless, his main crew consists of presumably powerful characters who face the Revolutionary Army and other strong pirate crews. However, the main reason the Black Beard pirates are this high up is because of the captain, Kuzan, one of thestrongest Marines inOne Piece, and the fact thatBlackbeard can give everyone the devil fruit he steals, making fodder characters a threat, which he has a lot of.
3The Roger Pirates
Key Members: Gol D. Roger, Silvers Rayleigh, Kozuki Oden
With one fateful encounter, a young and eager Roger started his pirate crew with Silvers Rayleigh with the goal of changing the world. Journeying through the world, this crew was all about having a good time, with becoming strong only a by-product of their adventure. After their captain fell due to illness, he started The Great Pirate Age, challenging everyone to accomplish the impossible feat he and his crew achieved.
Unlike many other crews on this list, the Roger Pirates only had one ship, similar to the Straw Hats, except they presumably didn’t have a grand fleet like them. However, even with one ship, their crew was ripe with strength, including the Pirate King himself, Rayleigh, Scopper Gabban, and Kozuki Oden, not to mention the promising cabin boys Shanks and Buggy.Their one ship alone was enough to conquer the seas and find the One Piece, starting the grand adventure that has now become the world’sgreatest battle shōnen anime.
2The Whitebeard Pirates
Key Members: Edward Newgate, Portgas D. Ace, Marco
From a young age, Whitebeard only dreamt of having a family, with riches and fame never clouding his mind. While fans don’t know how he started his crew, they do know he got precisely what he wanted. Taking in anyone who needed a home, the Whitebeard Pirates became a sanctuary for those in need, attracting strength with members such as Marco the Phoenix, Portgas D. Ace, and even Blackbeard.
Like the Straw Hats,the Whitebeard Pirates have a strong, loyal, and familial bond, which makes them stronger together. Not only is his primary crew insanely powerful, but each commands their own ship, adding stronger and more extensive numbers. Not to mention Whitebear’s countless allies, tallying up to hundreds of ships in the command of one man. While they are impressive on paper, they backed it up during Marineford, one of thebest arcs in anime, wherethe Whitebeard Pirates went to war against the entire Navy, including all the Admirals and Seven Warlords, one of the most impressive feats any crew has done.
1The Rocks Pirates
Key Members: Rocks D. Xebec, Edward Newgate, Shiki
The Rocks Pirates are the most mysterious pirate crew inOne Piece, with the legendary group ruling the seas before Roger. The renowned captain, Rocks D. Xebec, formed the crew on the infamous Pirate Island with dreams of conquering the world by learning its past. However, Roger and Garp’s combined efforts defeated him, disbanding the crew. Because of the crew’s disdain towards each other, they hardly talked to each other, failing to spread the word and falling into obscurity.
Since fans haven’t seen anything of the Rocks Pirates, it’s hard to give a fair estimate. However, theirlegacy and on-paper members are enough to give them the top spot. Their crew contained some ofthe strongest characters inOne Piece, including three future emperors: Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom. Those three on the same crew alone are ridiculous, but even the unknown members were said to be powerful, from Shiki to Stussy, Wang Zhi, John, and Silver Axe. Not to mention,everyone viewed Xebec as the strongest pirate of his time, most likely the strongest pirate ever.
